


Jump

by moovelope



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friends helping friends snap out of Grimdarkness, Gen, Suicide mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 16:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6016270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moovelope/pseuds/moovelope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jade feels it, the moment that Rose sinks down into the darkness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jump

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really remember the reason behind having Jade as the Heir of Space in here. I think the idea was that the order of the kids entering got pushed back, so Jade enters first, then John, etc etc. And also the idea that, in their session, the first person to enter became the Heir. Does this mean all of the titles got pushed back? Who knows. But in your heart of hearts you know you want to see Knight of Light Rose and Witch of Time Dave.
> 
> Also, you can check out the hovertext to see what Rose is supposed to be saying!

Being the heir of space has its advantages.  Sure, you had to die on a hunk of rock to get these awesome spacey powers, and you really need to have a nice long rant at Tavros about that, but now you can teleport!  Which, alright, you could do before but it was only throughout your house.  Now you can sense all of space in the game, like having a map tattooed on the back of your brain.  It should be overwhelming, and your map gets a little glitchy when you try to focus on the outer ring, but you handle it with ease.  If you focus hard enough, you can pinpoint where your friends are, how they are doing.  You've already teleported and scared the pants off Dave several times.  It gets a little crowded with all his past and future selves, though.  
  
You're trying to figure out what you're supposed to do on your planet, (maybe something to do with these frogs?) when you feel it.  You keep tabs on John and Rose constantly (Dave is a little harder, he is like a swarm of bees instead of one entity).  John's been going through his land and playing with all the cute salamanders after he got you into the game and Rose got his butt in.  Rose hasn't messaged you in a while, but you know she's been hacking away at the game, picking at it with her needles.  
  
Everything's fine until suddenly it's not.  You gasp as you feel Rose’s existence— you can’t put it into words. Collapsing, exploding, draining in the back of your head.  You drop the tools you were fiddling with and just _jump_ , you need to get to her!  
  
You appear in a small alcove, alone.  Rose, or what feels like Rose but _isn't,_ is moving quickly away.  Small consorts in black robes are shaking in the corner.  You spare them a glance before you shoot off after Rose.  You don't want to teleport and try to catch up to her, it's tricky when she's moving so fast (how is she flying, anyway? Did she hit god tier?). You might teleport to exactly where she is!  That would be uncomfortable.  You stay back a bit, hoping she'll land and you can safely join her.  
  
She flys all the way to Skaia, descending in an array of black energy on the top of a tower in one of the many castles littering the planet.  Your heart is beating in your ears, what is even happening?? Besides yourself, Rose is the one who knows the game the best, and you really can't ask her what's going down.  
  
The top of the tower is—  
  
Oh god  
  
Oh  
  
Oh is that John's...?  
  
And oh no!!! Rose's mom!!!!  
  
You let out a small yelp as you hover uncertainly over the bodies.  Their blood is everywhere, mixing with the inky black rain Rose poured down.  You take a shuddering breath, fighting down the memory of finding your grandpa covered in blood, and focus back on finding Rose.  She's nowhere to be seen, but there's a flight of stairs leading down and you can sense her below.  
  
You teleport a bit behind her, finding yourself amongst more carnage. Prospitians and Dersites are strewn everywhere, covering the walls with blood.  Rose walks steadily in front of you, black ink leaking off of her dress.  She steps right over a white chess piece corpse.  
  
"Rose!" you call out, voice echoing down the corridor.  She halts.  "Rose are you alright?" You step forward.  
  
She turns around and stares at you.  She's completely gray, her skin ashen and dead looking.  Her eyes glow slightly, yet look empty.  You wonder if she knows who you are.  
  
"It's me, Jade.  Rose, tell me what's wrong."  
  
Rose blinks.   "Uret lkkr cu," she says flatly.  You pause.  
  
"What?  I can't understand you."  
  
"Uret lkkr cu," she says again, more forcefully.  She gestures to herself, small tendrils of shadow flickering around her.  
  
"Okay, I didn't catch that.  How about we sit down and try to—" you start to say.  She starts walking down the hall before you can finish. "Hey wait up!"  
  
You run after her until you're walking beside her.  There's a chill radiating off of her and your skin prickles.  She looks so…empty.  Like she let go of herself and is now going on autopilot.  She looks nothing like the girl who sends you links to the best anthro fics and takes twenty selfies just to get one where she looks properly 'distinguished'.  
  
"Did… you saw what was on the roof, right?" you ask softly.  She doesn't look at you.  
  
"Gij," she says, nodding.  You take a deep breath.  
  
"We need to talk about this, losing your guardian can be really difficult! I was devastated when my grandpa died.  I had to drag him back to the house and taxidermy him like he asked me too.  I was really sad, but talking to you guys helped! Even though I didn't tell you exactly what happened, it was nice to have someone there."  Rose doesn't reply.  "Do you want to talk about this?"  
  
She brings you around a corner, walking fast. "Sk," she says.  
  
"Sick?"  
  
She shakes her head, "Sk."  
  
"You don't want to talk about it?  What are you going to do?"  
  
She points down at your feet.  You look and realize you've been following a pair of bloody footprints.  
  
"K'v frapw ek azvv mih," she says.  The darkness around her intensifies and she looks ready to murder someone.  You shake a little in fear.  
  
"Rose, whatever you just said, no.  Please, let's sit down, or get out of here or—"  
  
A figure appears down the hall, black with huge feathery wings.  He looks your way, then disappears.  Your heart starts to race out of your chest.  
  
"Rose was that Jack? We need to get out of—"  
  
Rose pushes past you and follows his trail.  She's charging straight after the big bad who killed all of these poor chess guys in this castle, on the battlefield outside and yourself when you were taking a quick nap on your quest bed.  You don't know how she became a gray, tentacle girl but you're starting to think it might have something to do with what you saw on the roof.  
  
You teleport to a few feet in front of Rose, and she halts in her tracks, needles drawn.  
  
"Pkta!" she snarls.  
  
"No I will not move! You are going to calm your butt down and not chase after Jack like an idiot!" you yell back.  She tries to dodge around you, but you block her easily.  She's about to ready her needles when you lunge and envelop her in a hug.  
  
You hardly need to concentrate to jump back home.  The sensation is more acute carrying another person.  You feel the two of you expand, become nothing, become _everything_ as you embody space, until you reign the two of you back in to one fixed point, your bedroom.  
  
Rose's knees give out and you nearly drop her.  
  
"Woah there!" you mutter, leading her down to the floor.  She looks like she's gonna get- oh yup.  There she goes.  Her body curls in on itself and she begins to wretch, black sludge pouring from her mouth.  You pat her back, ignoring how the tendrils billowing up from her wrap around your hand.  
  
"I'm sorry about that; I've never tried to travel with anyone else before.   I…yeah I hope I can captchalogue that.  That's a lot of barf, uck."  
  
She shivers as she wipes her hand across her mouth, smudging vomit and lipstick across her cheek.  You grab a shirt off the floor and hand it to her.  
  
"Might want to wipe that off," you suggest.  She glares at you, no, she glares through you. Damn she is angry.  She stands up, unsteady on her feet, and heads towards your stairwell.  
  
"K'v frapw ywlj," she hisses.  You jump up and grab her wrist.  
  
"You aren't going anywhere.  You can't beat Jack, he's too powerful right now with Bec as a part of him.  I know, he probably killed your mom, and John's dad!  But fighting him and dying isn't going to bring them back," you say as she tugs at her arms.  She _growls_ and sends some of her black gunk to attack you.  You let go of your form a bit, becoming space, infinite, while still gripping her wrist.  She howls.  
  
"HXL CU FR!" she yells, grabbing her needle with her free hand and stabbing you where you’re still corporeal.  You screech in pain and snap out of your space zone, letting go of her.  She zips off down the stairs.  
  
"Ow ow ow shit damn it ow!" you curse, flying after her.  She's right in front of you, you tackle her from behind and pin her to the floor of the blue lady room.  
  
Her face is pressed into the tiles, needles pinned under your hands.  She yells and yells and you can't understand a word of what she's saying and you realize that you're crying.  
  
"Stop it!  Stop this right now, Rose! There's nothing you can do to help her, there probably wasn't anything to do in the first place," you yell at her.  She's still screaming gibberish underneath you, yet she's no longer trying to kick you and scratch at your hands and fight.  
  
"You were going to fight Jack, and it was going to kill you, and you knew that! Didn't you?? Rose, you are not allowed to go on stupid fucking suicide missions, that is a new rule!"  
  
"Hxl cu fr," she begs, far softer now.  You shake your head.  
  
"Whatever you're saying, I'm not letting you go.  I'm going to sit on you until I can talk sense into you.  You are not throwing your life away.  Not on my watch."  
  
Her body begins to shudder under you, and you fear she's gonna throw up again.  Instead, Rose Lalonde begins to cry.  
  
You hesitate a moment before rolling off of her.  She curls in on herself, crying harder.  You scoop your hands underneath her and pull her close to you.  Her sobs hurt your ears, her tears stain your neck, but you are not letting go of her, not a chance.  You cry along with her, too frightened and sad not to.  
  
"K'v iy qwiot, a horrid daughter," she whispers into your ear.  You tilt your head and look at her.   The gray is draining slowly out of her, leaking onto the floor around you.  
  
"You're not a bad daughter," you whisper back.  Her fingers tighten on your back.  
  
"I knew she was brought into a dangerous game and I didn't look for her, I ran around and broke things to pieces, pretended I knew what I was doing.  I, I could have helped her, hid her from Jack, I did _nothing_ —"  
  
"You wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Rose, please believe me. Jack’s stronger than all of us right now. We can’t stop him, or hurt him, not until we learn more about the game! And how to get stronger! And you seem to be learning more about it than everyone else. We need you here. We need you to be your really cool, smart, self and help us win. You can’t do that if you run after Jack,” you say with such intensity that it surprises you a bit.

Rose leans back from your embrace, and you reluctantly let her go. She closes her eyes and starts to take deep, shaking breaths. You wonder if she’s trying to calm herself down. Or if she’s trying to squash all of the feelings she’s feeling right now until she can think about them later. You wonder if the second one is healthy, and then you wonder what you squashed down after grandpa died. Your heart still hasn’t calmed down from chasing after Rose. You’re still reeling from seeing Rose and John’s dead guardians (oh no…you’re gonna have to tell John about his dad) but you’re shivering down to your bones at the thought that Rose was planning on following after them.

You reach out and grab Rose’s hand.

“Please stay with me. With John and Dave, too,” you whisper. She picks her head up and looks at you. Her face is an absolute mess. She’s pale as death, her black eyeliner running down her face, and her black lipstick smudged beyond repair. Her eyes are still a bit watery. She rubs at them with the heel of her palm.

“I’ll stay. I’m…I’m sorry Jade,” she says softly.

You pull her back in for a hug. “There’s nothing to be sorry about,” you tell her.

You stay with her for a long time, bathed in the light of the blue ladies.


End file.
